Crime Writers On...True Crime Review - The Man Who Calculated Death

The Man Who Calculated Death

12/12/24 • 46 min

3 Listeners

Her mother’s dying wish was that her daughter complete her memoir about her childhood in Nazi Germany. That’s how reporter Suzanne Rico learned a secret about her grandfather. Years before Robert Lusser was an American rocket designer, he was the German engineer who invented the V-1 flying bombs that rained down on London.

Suzanne’s grandmother was killed when Allied planes dropped bombs on their secluded farmhouse, a revenge attack her elderly aunts believe was targeting Lusser. Suzanne and her sister headed to Germany to make sense of their family history, investigate the 1945 bombing, and confront the legacy of a grandfather who played such a deadly role in the Third Reich.

“The Man Who Calculated Death” from Discount Sushi and Novel is part family memoir, part historical puzzle. We follow Suzanne’s journey to uncover the mystery of her grandmother’s death. And as she unearths more of her grandfather’s story, she ponders what responsibly her family bears today for the horror of Lusser’s flying bomb.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE MAN WHO CALCULATED DEATH" BEGIN IN THE FINAL TEN MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE MAN WHO CALCULATED DEATH" BEGIN IN THE FINAL TEN MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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Previous Episode

Inside McKamey Manor

San Diego’s McKamey Manor drew fame as a boundary breaking, interactive haunted house - not one filled with ghosts and goblins - but one where visitors are tied up, waterboarded, or buried alive. Now located in Tennessee, attraction goers are saying the manor is going too far with its physical and mental abuse.

Owner Russ McKamey disagrees, pointing to its rabid online following for his no charge, “extreme haunt” experience. But its murky waiver forms, military-grade stress techniques, and intimidation of visitors who want to leave the haunted house now have the authorities wondering if McKamey Manor is actually a torture chamber.

In the podcast “Inside McKamey Manor” from Always True Crime, host Elizabeth McCafferty explores the controversial scare attraction, why people are drawn to it, and why it’s still in operation. She also talks to a variety of experts with insight into various aspects of the horror experience.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "INSIDE McKAMEY MANOR" BEGIN IN THE FINAL ELEVEN MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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Next Episode

Nature of the Crime

Thirty years after his involvement in the shooting of a cop, Todd Scott prepares for his sixth parole hearing and a chance to demonstrate his rehabilitation. Convicted at age 14 for killing another teen and a baby, Chad Campbell faces the parole board for the ninth time to argue for his release. But their lawyers fear the board will only ever consider one factor: the heinous nature of their original offenses. Because they can never go back and change the crime, they believe the inmates have no hope of ever receiving parole, despite their exemplary prison records and expressions of remorse.

The HBO Original documentary “Nature of the Crime” takes us into the closed-door interviews with those seeking parole in New York. It explores how, for certain inmates convicted of high profile crimes, the hearings are foregone conclusions because of public pressure and the desires of politically-appointed board members to appear tough on crime. It also highlights a Connecticut program that focuses on the emotional growth of offenders who were juveniles when they committed their crimes.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "NATURE OF THE CRIME" BEGIN IN THE FINAL ELEVEN MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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